Nod to Cynthia Leeder’s hiking page

Cynthia, a frequent commenter here, has more than two dozen hikes chronicled at her site. Her hikes always include Topo maps with elevation profiles — something I’d probably do if I ever got around to buying a GPS. Last week we were talking about the steepest Bay Area trails and Cynthia promptly headed down to Carmel Valley to check out reports of a 30 percent grade at Garland Ranch near Salinas.

Thanks Tom! I hope I have some useful reports there but to be sure, I could use some writing lessons from you. Your reports are the best!

And regarding GPS, I have noticed that the GPS stats differ from the numbers TOPO! reports after I import the tracks from the GPS and build the profile. Sometimes they are close and sometimes they aren’t. I have no idea which one is the most accurate. Somehow I think TOPO! would be closest to the truth but if anyone knows, I would sure like to know. Thanks!

Cynthia–
I am curious as to what equipment and software you use to generate the statistical reports you have at the beginning of your reports. I would be very grateful if you could provide a detailed response as I would very much like to do something similar one day.

Hi Jason, The statistics I list actually come straight off of my GPS unit. I have a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx that I purchased from Amazon. I like the thing a lot but in I don’t know how accurate some of the numbers are. Otherwise the software that comes installed on the unit has screens that automatically tell me all of that info, from distance, to total elevation gain, max elevation, moving time, etc. I just copy the data from the screen. The one statistic I do have confidence in though is the max elevation. My unit tends to be accurate within 5 to 20 feet and I feel good about that.

When I get home from a hike though, I also import the tracks from my GPS into the National Geographic TOPO! program to generate the maps and profile. TOPO! calculates its own distance and total elevation gain from the tracks and those two stats sometimes agree with my GPS and sometimes they don’t. I think TOPO! might be more accurate but I don’t really know for sure.

One other thing I should add, is that I contacted National Geographic for an extended user license for TOPO! so that I could legally post the maps and profiles on my website. It was free and they were very nice about it but National Geographic does prefer that people do that rather than willy nilly post maps without their approval. They have legal guidelines about how to do that. If you do get TOPO!, email them for the extended license. If you have more questions, you can email me at cynthia1952@sbcglobal.net.

Hi, enjoyed a look around your blog. Great information if we ever head over your way for a quiet stroll. You may be interested in having a look at our Australian blog. There are some great walks over here!! Frank

I just saw your post late last night, over a week after you posted it. I don’t know if you will see this but thank you! And hiking Australia is a fantasy for me along with hiking in some other far flung destinations, like New Zealand. So many trails, so little time and money. But who knows? If my bank account can ever afford it, I will go to Australia and do that! In the meantime I am bookmarking your blog. Thanks!